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Schools Are Failing LGBT Youth On Sex Education - It Cannot Continue

95% of young people told us they had not learned about LGBT sex and relationships

In a few weeks’ time, schools will fall silent for another summer break. But this is not the only silence that will be hanging over playgrounds across the country, as the Government quietly announced that the much anticipated rollout of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) lessons would be delayed for another 12 months. As things stand, schools are not legally required to deliver RSE lessons, let alone LGBT-inclusive ones.

This delay means it won’t be until 2020 before lessons are compulsory.

Two years ago, Terrence Higgins Trust published a landmark report based on the experiences of over 900 young people aged 16 -25 across Britain, showing that schools are being silent on RSE. The report highlighted that many schools are failing to provide adequate lessons or are simply not providing any RSE at all. Findings included:

95% of young people had not learned about LGBT sex and relationships

97% of young people missed out on any discussion around gender identity

50% of young people rated their RSE as ‘poor’ or ‘terrible’, with just 10% rating it as ‘good’

75% of young people were not taught about consent

These statistics come at a time when young people continue to experience poor sexual health. In 2016, they represented half of all new STI diagnoses, with a 27% increase in gonorrhoea and 22% increase in syphilis between 2016 and 2017. Young people also find discussing sexual health to be a challenging topic, with 56% of men and 43 per cent of women saying it is difficult to talk about STIs with friends.